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Steering clear of online brand protection issues in the world of new gTLDs

BizTech Africa looks ahead at the launch of the new gTLD's and the function The Clearinghouse has as the only authorised and universal means of a brand owner protecting their trademarks across every new web extension.

World Intellectual Property Review details on the milestone of 5,000 trademarks in The Clearinghouse providing insights on the countries of origin of the trademarks, types of registrations and which sectors are highly active in the Clearinghouse.

"New top-level domain names present a land of opportunity, but there are also threats. Prior to this there has been no universal protection available to brand owners and the Clearinghous goes a long way to mitigating the threat" he said.

Ad Week covers the issues the launch of the new gTLD's can cause for brand owners; stating: "For brands that want to defensively register thousands of trademarks and variations to the left of the dot to keep them out of the hands of cyber scammers, the proliferation of TLDs present a financial, legal and logistical nightmare."

Vicky Folens, a manager at Deloitte, states that protecting trademarks in line with the launch of new web extensions is nothing new, but the sheer volume of new generic top-level domain names expected to go live in the coming year or so "makes the necessity of ensuring (the trademarks) are protected all the more poignant".

Der Anwalt Spiegel gathers some data of trademarks already submitted in the Trademark Clearinghouse with the conclusion that the German trademarkholders are wel behind other European countries such as France and Swiss.